


Of Space And Snow, And All In Between

by certifiedAsshole



Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Aliens, Bunny has issues, Intergalactic War, Jack Has Issues, Jack used to be a soldier, Jack's a bit of a shit head, Mentions of War, Multi, Original Species, Tooth is like jacks mother, alien empire, bunny finally apologizes, jacks a galaxite, north is like jacks father
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-01-12 23:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21234512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/certifiedAsshole/pseuds/certifiedAsshole
Summary: Sometimes, Jack forgets what he really is.While he retains his frost and snow, the soft flurries and fern like patterns of ice are nothing in comparison to what he could really do.The beauty of the ice he normally produces is nothing in comparison to the torrential glaciers that swept through battle fields across planets, freezing enemy soldiers in a solid river of ice. It was nothing compared to the diamond sharp ice shards that would erupt from his hands when he was threatened, impaling anyone in his way. It was nothing compared to the terrifyingly beautiful icy wings that would shoot out from his back, tossing him in the air like he weighed no more than a feather. He forgets he’s capable of causing such twisted displays of ice and snow, that he’s capable of freezing someone from the inside out, should he see the need to.Sometimes, he forgets he's a Galaxite.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> What better way to introduce your fictional species by writing an au fanfiction using your latest fixation?
> 
> I'd like to thank my friends Liv and Ez for saying they'd beta read this. I have no idea how I'd manage to function without their help

They had arrived. Altorai had fallen. 

  


“Mary! Get to the escape pods!” Jack cried, spearing a nearby enemy soldier with a shard of ice. The Zogaian had brought an armada, Altorai would never be able to win this alone.

  


“I’ll hold them off as long as I can, please just go!” Jack cried out in pain as he was sliced in the side, whipping his sword around to stab the soldier through the head. The body doesn’t even hit the floor before Jack is forced to whip around and hack through another. The twisting movement agitated the wound, which began to bleed muted blue blood. Jack pressed his hand to the gash, freezing it to the best of his ability, before moving forward.

  


“I’m not leaving you!” Mary’s voice called. A shard of ice flew next to his head, impaling an enemy that he had not seen. “You’re either coming with me or I’m staying with you!” Jack whipped his head around, narrowly dodging a flying spear.

  


“Mary  _ please _ .” God he wanted to go with her, he wanted to leave this place. He couldn’t stand killing people, even now, after being in the army for four years. But he was obligated to help… he had a job to do, he had to defend. 

  


‘Even if it was for nothing,’ his mind said. ‘But if I go with her, I can at least protect her… she’ll be safer…’ 

  


“Jack!” Mary’s scream cut him out of his thoughts, and Jack blanked. His body went numb with adrenaline, and he stepped over the body of a soldier (who had tried to hurt  _ his  _ sister) and grabbed Mary’s hand. He crouched down to her level and rested his hands on her shoulders, staring at her with a fierce determination. He’s going to get them both out of here, or die trying. 

  


‘As long as she’s safe…’

  


“Stick close with me! There’s some long distance pods down the other end of the hall, we can get out of here in those, but i need you to stick with me!” Jack cried over the sounds of sirens and screaming. Mary nodded, matted brown hair bobbing with the movement, her brown eyes wide with fear. “Can you cover my back?” Jack tossed her a spear, the one from the enemy soldier. Mary nodded, her face hardening with determination. Jack’s heart swelled with pride, and he gave her a small smile.

  


“We’re getting out of here,” Jack said, face resolute. Mary mirrored his look.

  


“We’re getting out of here.” With a nod of determination, the two siblings, a soldier and a young girl intent on getting to safety, turned towards raging battle and charged forward.

  


‘We’re getting out of here.’


	2. Trouble Lies Northward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which an enemy Jack thought to be long gone decides to show its face again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell writing dialogue isnt my forte

“Jack! My boy!” North calls. “You been busy, you have not visited pole in ages.” Jack laughs at the pout on the larger mans face. It just looks so weird!

“Sorry North, but November is very busy for me. You know that.” Jack absentmindedly freezes a little elfs feet to the ground, resulting in some very angry jingling coming from the now partly frozen sprite. “Oh, sorry little guy.”

“Yes yes yes! November is very busy time, lot’s of letters to read, a list to check!” Norths face suddenly hardens into a playful glare. “You’re still on naughty list, you know.” Jack barks a hearty laugh.

“As if I would let anyone else take my record!” Jack jumps up onto a ceiling beam, balancing on it with the precision of an acrobatic. 

“Oh! Hello Jack!” A blur of colour in his peripheral is the only warning Jack has before a feathered body is rammed into his, almost knocking him off the ceiling beam. A flash of fear runs through his mind, images of blood and amputated limbs and the disappointed face of the sergeant briefly creeping into his mind, and he has to physically restrain himself from grabbing his staff and ramming it through Tooths chest.

‘Breathe,’ he reminds himself. ‘It’s over. They can’t find you here.’

_ Breathebreathebreathe _

Almost as quickly as the panic arrives, it’s gone, leaving Jack with a cold feeling in his chest that he covers up by giving Tooth a bright smile that leaves her cooing like a mother over their child.

“Hey Tooth! Did you see anything cool recently?” Tooth had been spending more time out in the field recently, and would return to the pole for their monthly meetings with tales of adventures she had in the warmer climates. Jack always enjoyed such tales, as he couldn't go to those many of the places himself.

“There was a Jacaranda festival in a small Queensland town a little over a week ago, but other than that, not much,” Tooth shrugs. 

“Toothy! Glad to know you could make it!” Tooth grins at North, sending him a smile and floating down to join him. She gives North a quick peck on the cheek, and Jack fake gags. 

“I’m quite surprised that _ Jack _ was here first, usually he’s the last one,” Tooth chuckles. Jack shoots her a playful glare and sticks his tongue out. “Or well… second last one. Who would’ve thought that _ Sandy _ would be the chronically late one?” 

“Bah! He is busy man, Toothy. Lots of kids dream every night.” North gives her a gentle pat on the back. 

“Hey wait, where’s Bunny?” Jack asks. He’s partly curious because Bunny is always there before him, but mostly because he enjoys the friendly banter that has come between the two over the years. They may have a tense friendship—if it can even be called that—but Jack hasn’t known friendship in centuries, so he’ll take whatever he can get. 

“Bunny is busy rabbit, he’s probably working on something,” North chuckles dismissively, waving his hand. Jack furrows his brow because he knows Bunny is _ never _ late, the stupid rabbit sure did love to tease him over it, but he lets it go anyway. Bunny will be here eventually. All is fine and everything is good. 

“Ah! Sandy! You made it!” North’s voice cuts Jack out of his internal thoughts. He looks over and, sure enough, the little golden man has flown in with a plane of dreamsand. He tips his little bowler hat in greeting and flashes a few symbols over his head. 

“Oh, Bunny will be here soon, do not worry Sandy!” North laughs and claps the sandman on his shoulder, who sinks down under the weight of Norths massive hand. “I feel it in my belly!” 

Jack laughs at North’s ridiculous nature, calling on a small gust of wind to send him higher up into the rafters. A comforting warmth fills his chest as he stares down at the workshop below him, watching with a smile on his face as Tooth and North share a quick kiss before North goes back to bossing around the yetis, chuckling under his breath as Sandy tries to steal his eggnog back from the pesky elves, just enjoying the general clutter and organized chaos in the workshop… it reminded him of home, of the servants in his highland mansion, his sister and mother and father and…

Jack shook his head. It would do him no good to dwell on the past.

“Is Bunny here yet?” Jack asks after a few minutes. While he’s mostly content observing, he sort of misses the annoying pain in the ass. He’s the only one who doesn’t treat him like a child, Jack finds it refreshing.

“Hmm… No, actually…” North says. Jack furrows his brows in concern. He’s usually here by now, where is he?

“Do you reckon he might be in trouble?” Tooth asks, putting down the toy doll that she was observing. North rubs his beard with his fingers.

“Hmm… I doubt it, Bunny can handle himself, no?” North answers. Jack grumbles quietly at the comment. Of course Bunny could handle himself, but even if he was attacked he would’ve been here by now!

Clearly North must’ve been able to sense his distress (Jack will never understand how the old man did it, but he never really questioned it) because he lets out a sigh of exasperation and turns up to the rafters.

“If Bunny is not here in ten minutes, we will go out and find him. Ok?” North sighs. 

“Who are ya’ gonna go find?” Jack whips his head around just in time to watch the giant rabbit leap out of a tunnel with all the grace a giant rabbit can have.

“You, actually,” Tooth says, flying over to him. “You’re rarely ever late, we were getting kind of worried.”

“_ Jack _ was getting worried, I have faith in your abilities,” North grumbles. Jack gasps indignantly, placing a hand on his chest.

“I was not! You’re just never late and I’m not used to that!” _ oh my god he was worried _. What the fuck.

“Good ta know you actually care, I was starting to believe ya hated me,” Bunny deadpans, and Jack rolls his eyes. “But aside from worried spirits, there _ is _ actually something I need to talk to you about.”

“Oh?” _ That _ caught Jack’s attention. “Well, spit it out, cottontail. Don’t keep us waiting.” 

“If you’d _ shut up _ for once you’d realize that was what I was intending ta do,” Bunny grumbles, unclasping a small leather pouch from his bandolier. “I found these in a burnt patch of Canadian woods… no smoke, no records of fire, there was nothin’ but these ashes and burnt dirt.”

Jack stops breathing. No, no it… it couldn’t be what he’s thinking… surely _ they _ wouldn’t come here… right?

And yet… a handful of familiar ash glares back at him from Bunny’s palm. 

Jack forces down his panic, surely this is just a mistake, right? It’s probably just some spiteful fire spirit and nothing more. He’ll even ask Bunny!

“What did the terrain look like?” He winces at how abrasive his tone was, clearly he didn’t have enough time calming himself down from his almost panic attack. Bunny presses his ears against his head, snarling at Jack. 

“Since when did _ you _ care?” He grumbles. Jacks hands twitch as the other guardians hover over the patch of ash in Bunny’s palm. He forces down the urge to rip them away from the ashes, to steal them away and track down the person who left them, to tear them to bits and freeze them from the inside out. Instead, he settles for snarling back at Bunny, matching his intense glare. 

“It’s personal, ok?” He snaps. He didn’t want to explain to Bunny why he cared. The overgrown rabbit wouldn’t understand anyway. Bunny rolls his eyes, letting out a groan of frustration.

“Fine. The ground was burnt. The clearing was circular, there was nothing inside it, except for a spiral of ashes. Happy now?” No. He wasn't happy. They shouldn’t be here… they couldn’t be here! “…Jack? You, a’right mate?”

“I’m leaving.” Before anyone is able to stop him, Jack soars out of the skylight window, leaving a trail of snowflakes and the confused guardians.

——

“…Did I say something wrong?” Bunny asks, ears pinned against his head in confusion. Sandy shrugs his shoulders, and North shares a sideways glance with Tooth. 

“Do you think he’s ok?” Tooth flutters up to the iced-over skylight. “What if he gets hurt out there?”

“I’m sure the little bugger can handle ‘imself,” Bunny waves his hand dismissively. “No need to baby the guy.”

“No, Bunny, Toothy is right. We should send someone out to follow him,” North booms. “Any volunteers?”

Sandy raises his arm and floats up to eye level with North. If this is what he thinks it is, it would be best if he went.

——

Jack flies on the wind at breakneck speeds, shooting through the skies like a bullet. Angry grey clouds form in his wake, and if he wasn’t so determined, he’d be mentally apologizing to the residents of whatever town he’s about to drop a major blizzard on. 

His eyes scan the forests below him like a hawk, looking for the burnt patch of woods that Bunny had described as thoroughly as he could from the sky, but it’s not easy to do that with the violent storms brewing in his wake. 

After an hour of scanning the continent, and many false alarms, Jack feels about ready to give up. 

But then… he sees it. 

It glares up at him, mocking him, _ taunting _ him. The burnt spirals and ground sits innocently in the middle of a heavily wooded area, miles away from the nearest town or village. 

Miles away from anyone who could stop _ them _.

The wind abruptly drops Jack down, and he lands with a practiced ease onto the branches of a thick pine tree. He floats down gently, hovering just above the snow to prevent leaving tracks, and stares into the burnt patch of woods from behind the tree. 

The clearing is empty. Jack breathes a sigh of relief. 

And then a bright white light fills the clearing. 

Jack ducks behind the tree, shielding his eyes from the blinding light. Just as quickly as it comes, it’s gone, leaving Jack shaky and short of breath. 

He doesn’t want to look over, he has to and he _ knows _ it but he _ can’t _ , because then he’ll have visual confirmation and he just wants to pretend it _ isn’t real _ , that he’s safe and the earth is safe and the Empire isn’t back to take _ everything _ he’s worked _ so hard _ to get and—

He just wants to pretend that there isn’t a scout standing _ right there _ in the center of the clearing. 

He can’t breathe. She’s standing _ right there _ , her pitch black leather armour taunting him, and there’s no denying that the Empire has sent scouts here. That they intend to try and _ take this planet _. 

Jack leans up against the tree and forces down the rising panic and bile that threatens to escape his throat. It would do him no good to freeze up here when the woman is still out _ there _ , tapping away on her fancy keyboard and taking pictures of the landscapes—no doubt to send back to HQ for examination—and threatening everything he holds dear just by _ existing _. 

He takes a deep breath to calm his shaking hands, and tightens his grip on his staff. He tightens his shoulders in a defensive position and leans of the tree, slowly stepping out towards the clearing. 

A branch snaps under his feet, and the scout stiffens. She slowly turns around to face him, eyes gleaming orange. 

Jack curls up his lips in a feral snarl. 

_ “You shouldn’t be here.” _


	3. Fire In A Snow Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An enemy Jack thought to be long gone has decided to show its face again, and Jack doesn't take that well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Violence and gore and shizz

“You shouldn’t be here,” Jack growls. How dare they! How  _ dare  _ they show their faces anywhere within this solar system, after what they did? To him? To his  _ family _ ? His  _ home _ ?

The Zogaian scout has the audacity to look  _ offended _ . 

“And why does a little  _ human _ like you care?” She growls, her hands resting on her hips. While the posture may not seem threatening to most, Jack knows better. Her weapon is hidden in its sheath, beneath the layers of armour and leather padding, her hands are merely resting there while she waits for the perfect moment to strike. 

“Because,” Jack snarls, his mouth twisting into a malicious grin as he calls upon magic that he has not used in centuries. He can feel his icy, owl shaped wings forming from the back of his clothing, hoar frost and rime ice spreading across his clothes like protective armour. He misses this feeling, the jagged ice prickling across his skin, the way the light split into vivid rainbows when it ran through his wings.

The look of  _ fear _ on his enemy’s face as they realize what they’re up against. 

“Your people have taken  _ everything _ from me,” he grins maliciously at the fearful look that overtakes the scouts face. “And I will  _ die _ before I let your people take this planet.”

“That can be arranged,” the scout sneers, her sclera darkening into a muted orange. 

Fire suddenly erupts from her feet, spreading across the already half burnt clearing in controlled spirals. With a powerful beat of his wings he takes to the air, using both the wind and his massive wings to his advantage.

Surveying the area, he notices the defensive nature of the fire. It spirals around her in three main circles, the outer, middle and core. The scout stands in the core, where the fire is thickest. The outer edges are the tallest, designed to prevent him from escaping. The middle is just to make it harder to reach her, make it harder to break her barriers down as she fights on the offensive. 

Attacking on the offensive despite the fact that _ she’s _ the one who’s caged herself.

Jack grins, a feral, vicious grin. Those tactics imply a coward too fearful to throw themselves into the line of fire (literally, Jack thinks, as he watches the flames catch on to the trees). Even before he had the Earth’s ice and snow at his disposal, he was a master at breaking them down.

With a powerful beat of his wings and a controlled gust of air, Jack shoots backwards, to the edge of the fire ring. The flames briefly lick his feet, but all those years of running barefoot have practically worn the nerves down into nothing.

Jack rolls over in the air, stomach facing the ground, and lets himself fall. The scout watches in confusion, so it’s obvious she has never seen this tactic be used before. 

His wings extend before he hits the ground, and with the strength of a trained soldier and the power of a raging river he shoots through the rings of fire at such a powerful speed that the flames don’t even get to touch him before he’s out of them, ice spitting out from his shepherds crook and overtaking the fire.

The two clashing elements fight viciously briefly, the ice melting into water and then steam, the fire weakening and finally dissipating into no more than mere ashes. He shoots back upwards once more, and surveys the damage he’s done.

The scout is on the verge of panic, trying her hardest to relight the fires, but his ice has already spread across the ground. Hoarfrost and small, jagged burs crawl across the ground like vines, fizzling out the last of the fires. The battle ground is covered in mud, water, ashes and clumps of half melted ice and snow. To relight it now would require magic that the scout simply does not have.

Now her only chance at fighting is to engage him in the air, to join him in his domain.

Jack smirks as large, sparrow like wings erupt from her back, the flames licking her clothes and hair as she shoots up into the air like a firework. 

‘Now the real fun can begin,’ he thinks with a feral grin.

———

Sandy watches the battle from behind a tree, his amber eyes wide with shock. He knew Jack kept secrets from them, even after so long as a part of their weird psuedo-family, but…  _ this _ ?

Fire and ice clashed violently, the woman with the power of a raging wildfire viciously switching between attacking and defending, while Jack fights purely offensively. Jagged ice shards litter the ground, stray embers falling to the forest floor like fiery snow. The battle is hardly a fair one-the woman could not even begin to match the power of a raging blizzard. A campfire can never light itself in a storm.

But that doesn’t stop her from trying, and Sandy grimaces as she roars out in anger and slashes at Jack’s cheek with a jagged spear. 

Jack folds his wings in and drops below her, flying up behind her and slashing the woman’s back with his staff. She whips around to retaliate, but Jack blocks her before she can land another hit in. 

Sandy looks away as the two clashing elements fight viciously in the sky, the sounds of metal against wood and screams of pain permeating the air. 

A bone chilling screeching noise breaks through the sounds of battle, and Sandy’s eyes grow impossibly wide. Orange liquid drops to the ground. One, two, three drops fall and sizzle when it reaches the ice, almost like rain. 

Jack pulls the back of his staff out of her chest, and she falls to the ground. The jagged hoarfrost digs in to her skin, and she’s practically frozen from the inside out. The woman is long dead. 

Jack descends, panting and bleeding from a variety of small cuts and burns. His left cheek has a massive gash in it, the skin around it charred black and droplets of frozen blue slush threaten to escape the wound. Frost spreads over it the moment he hits the ground, closing it over as best as possible, and Jack collapses.

Sandy catches him in a golden cloud of dream sand, watching in curiosity and confusion as the ice covering his cheek begins trying to mend the wound, never getting far because of the burnt skin that blocks the ices healing path. 

Along with the gash on his cheek, Jack’s left eye appears to be bruised, a burn patch of skin resting right above his eyebrow, and his nose is bleeding the same blue sludge that his cheek is. His hoodie is burnt and torn beyond repair, little bruises and cuts covering up old scars across his torso. His right side has a chunk of skin torn out of it, seemingly from the serrated edge of the woman’s spear. 

Sandy looks away with a grimace as the skin around the gash begins to slowly knit itself back together. 

He thinks back to the way he fought, focused and practiced. Almost like a trained soldier, as if he’d done it before. He was vicious and unpredictable as well as calculating and skilled. 

‘Hmm,’ Sandy thinks to himself, rattling a snow globe and throwing it down, North’s workshop appearing undisturbed on the other side of the portal. 

‘What are you, Jack Frost?’

————

The moment Sandy touches down in the workshop, North is all over the injured boy. 

“Sandy! What has happened?” North asks in between barking orders to the yeti. Jack is lifted from Sandy’s cloud of dreamsand and is taken towards the medical wing, the yeti fussing over the gash in his cheek that is constantly trying to mend itself. 

Sandy shrugs at North, which isn’t entirely a lie. He has no idea what happened, all he knows is that Jack raced out of the workshop and an hour later was found fighting some… woman? Soldier? Sandy has no idea who that woman was to Jack, and he doubts he’ll know any time soon, but it can’t be any good.

“Sandy? We got the message, did you find him?” Tooth steps out of a snow globe, instantly flitting over to the small Sandman and hovering over him. Sandy nods, and points towards the medical ward. Tooth’s face falls, and she flits back over to North.

“What happened? Do you know?” She asks, resting her hands on his arm to ground herself. North covers his face with his other hand and hangs his head.

“No… Sandy just came through the portal with Jack on cloud. He was injured… his face and clothes were…” North’s pauses briefly, and Sandy gives a brief glance towards the medical wing. “ _ Burnt _ .”

“ _ Burnt _ ? Was it a fire spirit?” Tooth turned her head towards Sandy, her eyes shining in a silent question. Sandy shrugs shakes his head. No, whatever that woman was, she wasn’t a fire spirit. It might even be…

‘Not possible. They can’t have gotten here,’ Sandy thinks. ‘MiM would not have allowed them.’

“I guess… we can only wait for Jack to wake up… he’ll know,” North says. Tooth and Bunny nod in agreement. 

Sandy sends one last glance to the medical wing, before staring out of the skylight window at the waning moon.

‘Manny… what is going on?’


	4. What Pains You So?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack has woken up at the pole, and now he has an explanation to give.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayye im not all that happy with this chapter but eh ya cant win em all i suppose. anyway warning for some slight gore and mentions of self mutilation

Jack groans in pain, a dull ache thrumming through his body. Where is he? He’s on a bed, not in a tree or in a snowbank. He’s warm, but not uncomfortably so. He’s in a sort of sitting position, his back propped up against a few pillows. The gash on his cheek burns still, but it’s dull, almost numb. Could it be healing itself already? 

  


_ “And I will  _ die  _ before I let your people take this planet.” _

  


Jack suddenly shoots up with a gasp, ignoring the stabbing pain in his ribs as his body protests against the action, memories of the previous fight coming back to him. 

  


‘No… this can’t be real… they can’t be here…’ Jack thinks, chest tightening painfully. His eyes brim with half frozen tears that prickle painfully at his already sore face, and he rapidly blinks them away before they have the chance to fall. He won’t cry over this, not yet. Not here. 

  


“Jack? Are you alright?” North’s voice calls from the doorway. Jack didn’t even notice that he was there, and he quickly wipes the tears away. The  _ last  _ thing he needed right now was to be seen as weak around the only family that he’s had in years.

  


“Yeah, yeah I’m ok. Just a bit sore, yannow?” Jack laughs weakly, gesturing to his bruised and bandaged body, mentally filing away his injuries for later evaluation. “Know where my sweater is?”

  


“Oh, that old thing? Burnt to crisp, elves will make you new one.” North waves his hand, his expression hardening as he stares Jack down. “But you are lying, you are not ok. What happened out there? Sandy will not say. Said you must be one to explain.” North slowly approaches Jack, looking at him with eyes full of concern.

  


“Look I’d… rather not talk about it yet…” Jack mumbles, refusing to meet North’s eye. “It’s… I’ll tell you guys later, ok?” He needs some time to process everything before telling the guardians. 

  


North sighs and nods, sitting down on the bed next to Jack and resting a hand on his shoulder.

  


“You can talk to us about this, Jack. We’re your family,” North rubs Jacks shoulder in a comforting gesture, and Jack has to suppress a flinch at the contact. It’s amusing how even after so long, Jack still isn’t used to being comforted. 

  


“I just… not right now North, I’m sorry… I…” Jack stammers. North nods his head sympathetically. 

  


“I understand. Speak when you are ready, but for now you should rest. Sandy said you were in a nasty fight. You must heal your wounds,” North says sternly. Jack nods in agreement. 

  


“Yeah. Heal.” Jack stares out the window of the infirmary, the vast wastelands of the North Pole reminding him too much of his mountainous home. Jack can see North’s shoulders dropping in his peripheral, before he moves out of his sight completely and to the door. 

  


“Please… talk to us soon, Jack. Whatever is happening, we can help,” North says as he leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. Jack sighs. 

  


“I  _ really _ hope that you can.”

  


————

  


_ Jack clawed at the ice, trying to swim up. She was right there, just above the ice. Everything was fine! Why did they come back?  _

  


_ He couldn’t swim up, he was weighed down, air escaped his lungs and was filled by icy cold water, his sides burned, his body thrashed. He tried to kick off the weight that gripped his legs, but they were persistent, they knew that they weren’t going to survive. They wanted to take him with them.  _

  


_ His eyelids drooped in acceptance. He wasn’t going to survive this. He could only pray that Mary lived on after he was gone.  _

  


_ ‘At least,’ he thought. ‘If I die, I’ll take  _ you _ with me.’ _

  


————

  


Jack woke up with a gasp, coughing and spluttering, the memory of his death fresh in his mind. He looks around his room to find a cup of water resting on his bedside table, a small ‘get better soon’ card pinned underneath it. A quick scan around the room shows that his staff is nowhere to be seen. Jack didn’t really blame anyone for taking it off him. He wouldn’t be surprised if they were wary of him, they most likely didn't understand what was going on or why Jack killed someone. 

  


Shifting over as much as his body will allow him to, he grabs the glass from the desk (which immediately frosts over), and brings it up to his very dry, very cracked lips.

  


He sips the water as he thinks about what he’s supposed to do next. He knows he’ll have to tell the guardians—he isn’t happy about it but at least he can recognize that he won't be able to do this alone—but even if the guardians _would _help, what really could they do? They could hardly call themselves an army, they’d _never _be able to fight against the _entire _Zogaian empire. And Jack hasn’t heard of anything in relation to the Ostraean empire since they first made their colonies on earth. Really, _nobody_ has. 

  


“God this is so messed up,” Jack groans, resting his head in his hands. “And here I thought the worst thing I would have to deal with as a guardian is an angry shadow guy with a bunch of evil sand. Nope, now I have to deal with the Empire responsible for destroying my home that’s here for ‘Ruin Jack's Life Round 2: Electric Boogaloo’!”

  


Jack flops back against the bed in exasperation, before wincing in pain as the action agitates his still sore side. He lifts his oversized black t-shirt up to examine it, bringing his fingers down to graze across the bruised—but healed—side, admiring the new scar along his waist. He smiles, a bittersweet smile, remembering how his old friends would always fawn over the little cuts and scars he’d get after a battle. It made him feel… strong. It still does. 

  


The smile goes away once he remembers how he still has to tell the guardians about what happened. He’s not sure how happy they’d be about him  _ killing _ someone, what with being the protectors of children and all that. 

  


And wow, doesn’t that just bring some lovely anxiety along with it! How would they react to the news? Would they even understand that he had to? 

  


He really hoped they understood. 

  


“Welp, no point in delaying the inevitable,” Jack mumbles to himself resolutely. He scoots to the edge of the bed as carefully as possible—he’s still very sore after all— sets his feet on the soft red carpet. 

  


And immediately turns towards the bathroom instead of the door. 

  


“Ok… so maybe I’ll delay the inevitable,” he jokes quietly, walking to the en-suite. “Everyone knows that you don’t have potentially life changing conversations looking like you haven’t showered in the past week!”

  


He flips on the light switch and walks towards the mirror. He grimaces at his reflection, covered in little healed over scars and patches where his eyebrows were burnt, but his eyes focus on the long bandage hiding burnt flesh that covered his left cheek. 

  


‘So it  _ didn’t _ heal, great,’ Jack thinks. With a sigh, he opens a drawer and grabs out a pair of long, thin scissors. 

  


“Now I’d rather not use this buuuut I don’t know if there’s anything else for me to use,” he grimaces, peeling off the bandage on his left cheek. It still stings, unable to heal itself due to the charred flesh that surrounds the gash itself. As for the actual cut itself, it isn’t  _ too _ deep, it’s just  _ long _ . Spanning from his cheekbone to his jawline, and covered in burnt flesh. 

  


He raises the scissors to his cheek, he doesn’t really  _ want _ to do this but he has to if he wants his cheek to heal properly. 

  


“This is probably gonna hurt,” he mumbles to himself as he starts cutting. 

  


———

  


“Oh, Jack, you’re up!” Tooth says, fluttering over to him. She doesn't grab him like she normally would, which Jack is appreciative of. His nerves are too high for physical contact at the moment. Especially since he still doesn’t have his staff with him. 

  


“Yeah. And ya’ve got an explanation ta give,” Bunny scowls at Jack, who gulps. This is going to be a fun conversation, isn’t it?

  


“Yeah, sure fine. Jesus, who pissed in YOUR cheerios, ‘roo?” Jack smirks at Bunny as he presses his ears against his head in annoyance. Just before the rabbit can open his mouth to retort, Tooth lets out a shocked gasp.

  


“Jack, what did you do to your cheek?” She squawks, leaning in to touch it. Before her feathered hands can reach it, however, Jack’s hand snaps up and grabs her wrist tightly, maybe a little  _ too _ tightly if her flinch is anything to go by. 

  


“Sorry! Sorry!” Jack sputters, backing away and waving his hands in a ‘I really didn’t mean to do this so please don’t stab me or whatever’ gesture. “It actually heals better this way!” Tooth rubs the frost from her wrist with a confused expression. 

  


“That's all fine and well but did you have to walk out here with your cheek looking like  _ that _ ?” Bunny throws his hands up in exasperation. North nods and Sandy somehow manages to grimace in agreement. “Could ya not have put a bandage on it first?” 

  


“Look, does it matter? You guys have questions, I have answers, so please ask away before I lose the ability to answer them,” Jack laughs humorously. He would very much like this over and done with thank you very much. 

  


“Fine. First question.” Bunny stalks towards Jack. “Why the  _ hell _ did you kill that woman?”  _ Oh _ . That’s why he’s pissed. Makes sense. 

  


“You really don’t know, do you?” Jack chuckles drily before mumbling under his breath, “Didn’t expect you to. “

  


“Didn’t expect us to know  _ what _ ?” Bunny looks positively  _ predatory—  _ like he’s about to tear Jack a new one. Oh well. Maybe they’ll calm down if he explains it. 

  


“I didn’t expect you to know about the alien empire that likes conquering planets like the damn intergalactic British,” Jack shrugs nonchalantly. “It’s not exactly common knowledge.”

  


Jack regrets his choice of words at the resounding  _ “WHAT?” _ that echoes through the workshop. 

  


Sandy floats up to him, an alarmed look on his face and a flurry of symbols flashing over his head. 

  


_ Star. Planet. Spaceship. Question mark.  _

  


Jack gives Sandy a solemn look and nods his head, and if Sandy could pale then Jack thinks he’d be paper white if his shocked look was anything to go by. 

  


“Ok, Sandy you know something about this as well. Care to share?” North interrupts the mans silent conversation with Jack. Sandy shakes his head, forming a snowflake over his head, a pair of owl wings and points to the uneasy frost spirit. 

  


“Jack must be the one to answer?” North questions, and Sandy nods slowly. 

  


“Yeah, I mean I  _ do _ have first hand experience with them,” Jack shrugs. 

  


“What do you– actually no, never mind,” Bunny grumbles. “Could you just answer the question? Why  _ did _ you kill that woman?”

  


“Yeah, Jack… was it really necessary to  _ kill _ her?” Tooth asks hesitantly, flying just a few feet away from him. 

  


Well… now Jack isn’t so sure. Was it necessary? Or did he do it because that’s what he was used to?

  


“She was an enemy soldier in Ostraean territory,” Jack replies tonelessly. “The Zogaia know earth already has Ostraen colonies. They’d  _ have _ to, them being here is…” Jack trails off as he processes the words. Just when he thought it was going to be fine…

  


“Ostraean territory? Zogaia?  _ Colonies _ ? What are ya  _ talkin _ about? None of what you’re sayin makes any sense, mate,” Bunny growls. “And why are you so worked up over them being here?”

  


“Because, Bunny.” Jack straightens his back, staring the Easter Bunny down. “Tell me, what happens when a kingdom tries to settle on land that’s already owned?” Jack stalks towards Bunny, frost forming on the ground with every step he takes. He wishes he could float up to his eyes and stare him down proper, but without his staff (he seriously needs to find out where it is) he can't ride the winds, and as great as his wings are they’re too big and awkward to bring out right now. 

  


“I don’t know if you guys know this, but to Galaxites?” Jack’s eyes flash, the sclera filling with an icy blue. “It’s considered a  _ declaration of war _ .”


	5. A Startling Message

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack gives a more in depth explanation, and the Man in the Moon delivers some terrible news

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good ol Bunny POV

Aster couldn't find the words to respond. 

War? With an alien empire?  _ Galaxites _ ? And Jack  _ knew _ about this? 

Thousands of questions run through Asters mind, questions of why, when, how. Though one specific question sticks out to him the most. 

‘Why do his eyes look like  _ that _ ?’ 

Jack’s eyes are… more unsettling than usual. Aster could ignore the icy blue hue of his iris and the pure white of his pupils but now… his eyes look like they’d completely frosted over!  _ Surely _ that couldn’t be comfortable, was it? Did Jack even notice that his eyes looked like that? How can someone have eyes that  _ blue _ ?

Aster mentally clamps down on those thoughts, now is  _ really _ not the time. 

“Alright, so you’re in a spot of trouble with some… alien empire we’ve never heard of before. Surely it’s nothing we can’t handle, right?” Aster ignores how he’s mostly trying to convince himself.

“Nice thought, ‘roo, but if it was possible for only five people to take them down, do you really think I’d be here?” Jack smirks, a crooked grin that’s all teeth and aged pain. “No, as much as I hate to say it, we're fucked. Screwed up. There is, most likely, no way around this, and no way to fight back. Without calling for help, at least.” Jack shrugs nonchalantly, taking a few steps away from Aster and hopping up on to a nearby table. “And I’m pretty sure there isn’t really anyone who  _ can _ help us.”

“What?” Tooth asks the question that is no doubt on everyone’s mind. “Jack, you’re still not making any sense…” 

“Look, can you just tell us what your affiliation with them is?” Aster growls, needing the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Why the hell do you hate them so much?”

“Sorry you have to be level 5 best friend to unlock my past trauma,” Jack says bluntly. “But I’ll summarize for you, so sit tight folks, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”

Jack leans back, crouching down on the table and letting one of his legs dangle out off it. 

“Alright, once upon a time there was a planet called Altorai. It was a major center of commerce for the Ostraean kingdom, and the entire solar system was heavily guarded. Nothing bad could get in—or out,” Jack chuckles darkly. “Or so they thought.

“One day, someone got in. Killed the High Lord of the land and his lady, slaughtering many of the manors servants in her wake. She was ultimately caught and put to death, and the people were left to mourn. Including their young children, Jackson and Mary Overland.

“Frightened that such a thing could ever happen again, young Jackson turned towards the military. He thought to himself, ‘if I can protect my people, I can protect Mary. We won’t have to deal with such a loss ever again. We could finally be safe’.” Jack rests his head in his hands, letting out another dark chuckle. “Well, that’s what he thought anyway.

“They got in one day during a celebration. Massacred the entire planet. Only a few people made it out alive. Two of which.” Jack points a finger at himself. “Were me and my sister Mary.”

Aster can faintly hear the sounds of the others gasping in shock, but it was muffled by his own. Puzzle pieces slotted themselves together, like an incomplete picture. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to give Aster a clue of what was going on. 

Jack used to live on another planet. His parents died and he joined the army to protect his younger sister. Altorai was—most likely—gone. 

And whoever that woman worked for was the cause. 

“Oh sweety…” Tooth floats over to him and rests a hand on his shoulder, sending him a sympathetic smile as she rubs his shoulder with her thumb. “We… we didn’t know…” 

“So… what will they do ‘ere?” Aster asks after a moment of shocked silence. 

“Take over, probably,” Jack responds, voice quiet and unsure. “I don’t really know, I haven’t had any contact with them for over three hundred years.”

“What do we do to stop them?” North slams a hand on the table beneath him, causing Jack to flinch. 

“Nothing, really.” Jack fiddles with his hands, rolling an invisible staff between them, a habit most likely picked up from fiddling with his crook for so long. “What are we supposed to do? Attack them? Defend ourselves?” Jack abruptly steps up onto the table, gesturing wildly at the others with his arms. “With what army?” 

“What about the colonies?” Aster stands back up at walks towards Jack. “You mentioned there were colonies. Surely they would be able ta help, right?” Jack rubs a hand through his hair, looking off to the side. 

“I don’t know, they’re really elusive. I haven’t even been able to talk to them since they first came here…” 

“But surely you could find out about them? I mean if what ya said is anything ta go by, then we’ll need all the help we could get,” Aster says. Jack rubs a hand through his hair, dusting off the frost that had grown on it in response to his stress. 

“Perhaps Manny would know?” North offers. Sandy nods in agreement, a smile on his face, and Tooth gives a thumbs up. 

Jack, however, scowls at the idea. 

“He hasn’t spoken to me for three hundred something years. What makes you think he’s going to answer me now?” He snaps. Aster recoils slightly at the tone of the voice, guilt rising in his gut at the reminder of Jack’s abandonment. 

“Man in moon has some… communication issues,” North explains. “He can not speak with us easily without the right technology… most of which has been destroyed.”

“Ok, but if he’s got issues talking with us then how the  _ hell _ is he supposed to help us?” Jack retorts, pointing at the skylight window. “Besides, what if he doesn’t know about the Galaxites?  _ You _ guys sure as hell didn’t.” 

He had a point, Aster knew that. But they had to hope, right? 

“We can only try, Jack,” Tooth says softly. Jack sighs in response, wrapping his arms around himself. 

“I know… I know… I just…” Jack lets out a breathy chuckle. “And here I thought that… this was over. That it was just snowballs and fun times for me from now on. Guess I was wrong.”

Jack stood up from the table, setting his feet down onto the wooden floors and walking towards North. 

“We can try talking to… the man in the moon,” Jack says with a bitter undertone. “But he might not have the answers.” North smiles softly at the boy, resting a large hand on his shoulder. 

“We can only hope.”

  
  


————

Being able to have a full on conversation with the Man in the Moon was not an easy task. The guardians once had technology that allowed them to communicate with the ancient being, but most of it had been destroyed during the dark ages, or had fallen into disrepair. 

Or, well, that’s what most the guardians thought. 

“…what.” Aster stares dumbly at the strange device before him. It looked like a really flat screen made out of glass, floating on a cylindrical base made of some sort of white, marble like material with ornate golden spirals. North looked extremely proud of himself as he wheeled the equipment into one of the workshops empty rooms.

“Man in moon has similar one,” he says with a large grin. “It allows us to communicate with each other properly.”

“You’ve had this  _ all along _ !” Tooth gapes at the strange contraption. 

“Ehh, not really.” North waves his hand in a ‘sort of’ gesture. “Started it about seven years ago, right after Pitch’s defeat. Figured it would be better to have decent communication with Manny again.”

“And ya didn’t think to tell us?” Bunny growls, crossing his arms in annoyance. North rubs the back of his head sheepishly. 

“Well… is not quite finished… but this is very important, and we need to use it  _ now _ .” In his peripheral, Aster could see Jack nod absently in agreement. “The screen isn’t finished, but the speakers are. It should work for about five minutes before we are out of range.”

“Well what are we waiting for? Fire it up North!” Tooth exclaims. North gives a wide grin, barking orders in Russian at the yetis. Wires are set up around the room, connecting to a large outlet (Bunny has no idea where North gets the electricity from, but it’s not really important). 

“Ok, stand back everyone, this has not been used before and it could explode!” North warns, stepping away from the strange device. 

“ _ What _ ! Did ya not think to test it before you used it ya bloody moro—“ a blinding white light fills the room, an ominous crackling sound coming from the device. 

The light is gone as quickly as it arrives, leaving the guardians with white spots in their vision. 

“Did… did it work?” Jack asks after a few moments of silence. 

“Indeed it did.”

Aster’s eyes widened, and he whipped his head over to the device. 

The device was working all right. The screen was barely working, showing only a few fuzzy frames of a plump man in a golden suit with a singular curl atop his head. But it worked. 

“Holy… I can’t… North…” Aster stammered. “Th-that actually worked!” 

“Bah! Of course it did!” North booms, patting his chest. “I’m a master inventor.”

“Indeed you are, Nicholas,” MiM replies humorously, voice slightly muffled and crackly but still audible. “But you called me for a reason, isn’t that right, Jack Frost?”

Aster looks over to Jack and winces at the hateful look in his eyes. 

“Don’t think I’ve forgiven you for what you’ve done,” he spits out, an unfamiliar alien word rolling off his tongue (no doubt some sort of curse word). “But you’re our best lead at the moment.”

“I understand, please know that I do regret my actions dearly, Jackson,” MiM sighs. “But there are more important matters to be discussed than what you have in mind.”

“What could be more important than  _ stopping an invasion _ from the people who  _ killed _ me all those years ago!” Jack snaps back. 

“Oh, you are not aware of what happened,” MiM whispers, his tone forlorn and almost… mournful. 

“What are you talking about?” Aster pins his ears back at the soft, melancholic voice. 

“The Zogaia,” MiM sighs, the sound causing Aster and Jack to bristles. Bunny can feel dread growing in the pit of his stomach, his mind begging  _ please, please _ let it not be what he thinks he is. 

But sometimes, no matter how hard you beg, the truth cannot be changed. 

“They’ve already attacked the Colonies.” And the feed cuts off with a soft  _ click _ . 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not uploading last week, this chapter gave me literal HELL. I’m still not happy with it but Ah fuck it, who cares


	6. In Dire Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Bunny set out to try and find what happened to the colonies. Meanwhile, a distraught man is trying his hardest to save as many people as he can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit longer than my other ones. 5 and 6 were both too short on their own so I merged them

The choking smell of smoke and ash permeates the air like a smothering blanket. Gunfire rings out in the distance as Jaeris ushers as many people to the evacuation zone as he can. 

There’s a flash of light, an explosion, and in the distance, the clock tower collapses into a heap of beams and rubble. 

“Wait! Wait we have to go back!” A child, no more than 10, cries out in anguish. “My mamma was in that building, we have to go get her!” 

Nausea bubbles in Jaeris’ stomach. Deep down, he knew that this would inevitably happen, he spent years training for a situation like this after all, but… 

He never expected it to be  _ this _ bad. 

The child climbs over the heads of other fleeing civilians, eyes ablaze with fear, fury and desperation. Her wings are small and half formed and can hardly keep her body off the ground as she runs in the direction of the ongoing— _ losing _ —battle in the city’s center. 

Jaeris extends out his left arm, catching the young girl and pulling her to his chest. She kicks and screams, crying out for her mum, little fists pounding on Jaeris’ side. He chokes back a sob of his own, ignores the rising of bile in his throat, and pushes on towards the doors of the underground evacuation tunnels. 

The last of the evacuees rush into the bunkers, and Jaeris feels someone take the little girl from his arms. He takes one last look at the underground city he called home for the past fifty years, burnt to the ground and littered with bodies. He still can’t believe it’s real, still thinks it’s just a bad dream. That he’ll wake up tomorrow and his daughter won’t be missing and his family and friends would still be alive instead of indistinct corpses littering the once colourful streets. It all happened so fast, hardly a day went by and now… 

Now there’s nothing left. 

Jaeris slams the bunker doors shut, locking them as tightly as he can. He slides down the heavy steel door and only then, when the remaining civilians are safe inside the evacuation chambers, does he allow himself to cry. 

—————————

“Jack ya bloody moron, slow down!” Bunny calls out to Jack, the winter spirit completely ignoring him as he stomps down to the globe room. “We need to think about this, not march blindly into a battle we know nothing about!” Jack abruptly pauses, swiveling around and glaring daggers at the Pooka. 

“Correction, a battle  _ you _ know nothing about,” Jack hisses. “ _ I _ have dealt with this before, and every second I waste here is another second where people will  _ die _ .” Bunny pins his ears back, whether in shame or in anger, Jack can’t tell. He doesn’t care either, the sooner he can get out into the air and begin his search for the colonies (‘or whatever is left of them,’ a traitorous voice in his mind whispers), the better. 

“I’m coming with you,” Bunny states firmly, staring down at Jack with a look that  _ dares _ him to reject his demand. “ _ Someone _ has ta make sure you don’t get your stupid ass  _ killed _ .” The winter spirit rolls his eyes in response, lips quirked in a small smirk. 

“You know where my staff is?” Jack pipes up once they reach the globe room. He can feel the wind brushing against the exposed skin of his forearms, faint and weak and full of worry, but he can’t communicate with it properly without his staff. 

‘If I can’t find it, I’ll have to use my wings again,’ he thinks to himself with a grimace. ‘Apart from the… fight, I haven’t been using them much recently.’

“No, North is the one who took it when ya got here, and you left them back with that weird communication device,” Bunny points out. “We can always use my tunnels to get outta here, North will be pissed off but there’s more important things to worry about than his precious hardwood floors.” 

Jack snickers a little at that comment, before walking over to join the Pooka where he stands. 

“Well, cottontail, what are you waiting for?” Jack cracks a wry smile, gesturing down to the ground. Bunny returns the look, raising a foot and thumping twice. 

The floors sinks in on itself, forming a deep tunnel, filled with vines and moss and colourful flowers Jack doesn’t recognize. Bunny stares at Jack’s empty hands, his brows furrowing in confusion. 

“Uh, shouldn’t you go get ya staff before we charge into a potential battle?” Bunny asks the weaponless spirit. Jack flashes a toothy smirk at the Pooka. 

“We don’t have enough time to go and find it. Besides.” Jacks fists crackles with blue light, thick ice spreading over his clenched fists and crawling up his arms. “I can do well without it.”

With a whoop of delight, Jack is rushing down the rabbit hole before Bunny can respond. 

—————————

“…orty-five, two thousand nine hundred and forty-six… two thousand…” Jaeris suppresses another shiver, a tear slipping down his cheek. 

“Final head count. Two thousand, nine hundred and forty seven.”

“Is that  _ all _ ?” One of the doctors pipes up from behind a curtain. “ _ Just _ that?” 

Jaeris bows his head, partly out of respect for the dead, partly out of mourning. The doctor pauses, bowing her head as well. 

“I’m sure there are others out there. Others who just didn’t make it to the tunnels,” another doctor consoles, resting a bandaged hand on Jaeris’ shoulder. “We just need to hope.”

“Yeah,” Jaeris mumbles absently. “Hope.”

He wishes he could find it in himself to believe the doctors reassuring words, but he finds it hard to hope after watching his city burn. 

—————————

Bunny recoils abruptly, pausing in his search through the Canadian woods. Jack is by his side in an instant, frantically asking what was wrong. 

Bunny wishes he could respond, but his words die up in his mouth. His stomach turns as the foul—yet familiar—taste of hope dying attacks his senses. A taste he had thought he blocked out long, long ago. 

The taste of hopelessness, the taste that arises when you watch your people burn before your eyes, when you give up all hope of survival. 

“We have to find them,” Bunny clenches his teeth and wills the taste to leave his mouth. “We  _ have _ to.” 

—————————

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,” Jaeris murmurs softly, staring out at the crowd of injured survivors from where he sat sitting in a metal bench. “You make me happy, when skies are grey.”

_ “You’ll never know dear, how much I love you.” The young child before him beamed and clapped her hands together in a mock applause. Jaeris chuckled at her antics, kissing her forehead before murmuring the final part of the lullaby.  _

_ “Please don’t take, my sunshine away.” _

“You ok?” A soft voice jolts Jaeris out of his trance. The doctor from earlier joins him on the cool metal bench, rubbing his shoulder in a tentative gesture. 

Jaeris stares down at his fingers, hands calloused from years of hard work. His shoulders hunch forward, and he runs a hand through his curly black hair. 

“Probably not,” he rasps, choking back tears. His head pounds and his eyes feel like they’re about to burst, but he doesn’t want to cry a second time. The doctor beside him lets out a bitter laugh. 

“I feel ya man.” She rubs the back of his neck in a soothing gesture, her ice cold hands grounding his pained mind. 

“This is such a mess, ain’t it, Erin?” He grumbles into his hands, rubbing the heels of his palms into his eyes. The woman beside him barks out a humorless laugh.

“That doesn’t even begin to cover it.” Erin rests her head on the stone walls of the bunker, little bits of marble jutting out and grinding painfully against her head.

Jaeris ruffles her short, wiry brown hair, knotting it up even further. 

“It appears that in all the chaos you forgot how to use a hairbrush,” he jabs, growing small, claw like crystals over his fingertips and running them through her hair. Erin leans into the touch like a stray cat getting scratched for the first time. 

“It’s hard to take care of yourself when you’re trying to stop someone from bleeding out,” she chuckles lightly. The atmosphere abruptly turns dark and smothering, the pair of old friends immediately sobering up. 

“…be honest with me, Jae,” she mumbles. Jaeris stares at her, concern lacing his hazel eyes as he removes his hands from her hair. The crystals fall away from his skin, dropping down to the ground like splinters of broken glass. 

“Do you think… do you think we’ll survive… this?” She gestures at the hundreds of people who lie in makeshift hospital beds and tarps, huddled in blankets and holding on to whatever family they have left. Jaeris stares back down at his hands, clenching his fists. He can feel the crystals prickle into his skin, sending unpleasant tingles up his spine, but he doesn’t care. 

He doesn’t reply, but they both know the answer to it. 

They both know that they’ll most likely not make it out of here alive. 

—————————

“Bunny wait–”

“I’m tellin’ you I felt it around here!”

“There isn’t anything  _ here _ , Bunny!” Jack wheezes as Bunny grabs onto his shoulders roughly. Acid green burns into ice blue, a look of determination set into the Pooka’s face. 

“There’s something here. I can  _ feel _ it,” he rasps. Jack suppresses a shiver at the tone. “I don’t know  _ what _ it is, but I feel it.”

Bunny’s hands tense on Jack’s shoulders for a moment before he pulls away, leaving the ice Galaxite frozen in place. A hand comes up to touch the place that Bunny’s paws had been a moment ago, and jack briefly marvels at how warm the spot now feels. 

“You’re one of them, right?” Bunny cuts through the silence. Jack stares at him in confusion, causing the Pooka to sigh. 

“A Galaxite. You’re one of them right?” Jack hesitates, this would be the first time he’d outright say what he was since… well… Altorai, really. 

“…yeah, figured that would be obvious by now ‘roo,” he says under his breath, laughing softly at the irritated little twitch Bunny’s ears give at the name. 

“Can you… sense them?” He asks, voice quiet and very unlike him. Jack stares down at the ground, a frown on his face. “I'm takin’ that as a ‘no’.”

“No, Galaxite’s can sense each other, through their magic,” Jack starts. “But I haven’t… used that type of magic in so long, and honestly… I don’t know if it’ll work.”  _ ‘Or if I want to,’ _ goes unsaid, but both know Jack wants to say it. 

Truthfully, Jack could sense their magic if he wanted to—it’s not exactly something you forget due to disuse—but he’s also so terrified that he’ll come up empty handed, that he’ll feel the echoing chasm in his soul once again when he reaches out his own magic just to find that there isn’t anyone there. Once was enough for him. 

“You’ve gotta try, mate,” Bunny growls, glaring down at Jack. “Trust me when I say that you gotta. It’s better to have tried and come up empty handed than to never try at all, isn’t it?” Jack opens his mouth to argue, but snaps it shut as Bunny’s words process through his mind. 

“Fine, I’ll try,” Jack sighs, his shoulders dropping as he reflexively clenches his left fist, immediately missing the comforting weight of his staff. 

Bunny nods and gives Jack an encouraging smile before stepping out of the way to give the Galaxite some space. Jack lets out a shaky breath and closes his eyes, reaching into his soul in search of old magic. He latches onto it and wills it out like a homing signal, spreading it as far as it will go. 

It’s an echoing pit of darkness, with nothing but a faint glowing blue that originates from himself. He can faintly trace bunny's magic, but it’s not what he’s looking for. His magic feels like springtime, like running your fingers over smooth dandelion petals, and while it’s pleasant and soothing it’s not what he’s looking for. He’s looking for a  _ sight _ , not a feeling. 

His head begins to throb from the usage of old magic, he was out of practice with it after all, but he may as well continue what he’s started. 

The chasm in his soul grows as his search expands, only for him to continue to come up empty handed. He can smell the faint traces of dewdrops on some leaves from where an autumn spirit must’ve come by, can taste the honeysuckle from another spring spirit down south, but none of it is what he’s looking for. 

He sighs again, disappointed and rapidly losing hope, and then he sees it. 

In the corner of his soul, peeking out just behind his eyelids, is an indistinct cluster of multi coloured fractals, all of varying shapes and sizes and colours. His body abruptly swivels in the direction of the colours, a wide smile plastered on his face, stretching from ear to ear. 

“They’re underground!” He laughs almost hysterically. “No wonder I couldn’t sense them before, they’ve hidden themselves so far underground that the soil absorbed their magic!” Bunny cocks an eyebrow at the semi-hysterical spirit. 

“They can do that?” He says breathlessly. Jack lets out another bubbling laugh, bouncing in his place and vibrating all over. He grabs Bunny’s wrists, accidentally spreading ice across the Pooka’s fur in his excitement. He mumbles a faint apology when Bunny protesting in annoyance, before darting off in the direction of the fractals, dragging the overgrown rabbit behind him. 

—————————

Erin shivers beside him, eyes wide in shock. 

“What? What’s the matter?” Jaeris asks, grabbing onto one of her shoulders. 

“Did–did you feel that?” She breathes out shakily. Her face suddenly splits into a wide grin, and she grabs Jaeris’ hands. He briefly squawks at the shock of that is sent down his spine as the ice Galaxite shakes his hands excitedly. 

“Reach out! Reach out come on, your magic! Do it, do it!” She babbles nonsensically. Jaeris opens his mouth to argue, because why the hell would he want to do that? But then he  _ sees _ it. 

An unfamiliar spiraling fractal of ice and snow, nonsensical crystals that  _ tink tink tink _ together and radiate joy and laughter. It’s both incredibly familiar and completely foreign, like meeting someone you knew when you were young for the first time in decades. 

“Is–is that…” Jaeris mutters in shock. He can faintly feel something that can only be described as  _ springtime _ being tugged along with the ice fractals, but it’s so faint and vague that he questions if it’s even there at all. Erin nods in delight.

“Wh-what if they’re here to hurt us, though? What if they’re a part of Zogaia? How–how can we know they’re to be trusted?” Jaeris stammers out, grabbing his temple with one of his hands. Erin looks wistfully up towards the spiraling fractals, a smile on her face and half frozen tears of happiness in her eyes. 

“I don’t know how, and I don’t know why,” she murmurs. “But I feel as though whoever this is, they’re to be trusted.” Jaeris shudders, letting out a shaky laugh. 

“You’re an absolute madwoman,” he chuckles. “Well, only one way to find out, huh?”


	7. The Discovery Of Something Half Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a day of searching, Jack and Bunny finally stumble upon the Colonies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’m back from my semi-hiatus with a chapter that has. Not at all been proofread?? But like I’m fine with that. If there are any typos I apologize I’m literally posting this at 10pm after roughly cleaning it up.

Jack’s bare feet pound on the forest floor, snow and leaves crunching underneath his weight as he tugs the giant rabbit through the woods. Jack can hear Bunny curse behind him as he gets smacked in the face with low hanging pine tree branches, but he doesn’t pay much attention, too focused on trying to find the location of the Galaxite colonies (‘or what’s left of them,’ a little voice in his mind whispers. Jack decides he’s going to ignore it). 

Honestly though, despite everything, Jack hasn’t been this excited in  _ ages _ ! He was about to meet his own kind for the first time in centuries (if you didn’t count the scout that he had killed), in what would hopefully be a not so aggressive interaction! Well, hopefully at least. 

The trees around them begin to disperse, and the pair of spirits dash out of the forest line and end up faced with a seemingly abandoned village. 

The place looks like nothing more than an old run down farmers village from the 1600s at first glance. A well sits at the town's center with a rusted bucket sitting on the edge of the worn down stone bricks, a dilapidated grain mill with vines creeping up the walls not too far from it, broken down houses missing rooftops strewn around the area and old sheep pens that had been long since taken over by a variety of different weeds and flowers. 

The whole place looks like it had been completely abandoned for centuries, but Jack knew that it wasn’t. It  _ couldn’t _ be. This was the place he tracked the Galaxite’s magic, so they had to be here, right?

“Uhhh… frostbite?” Bunny asks tentatively, shoulders tense and ears folded against his head. He clearly seemed uncomfortable walking through the supposed ghost town. Completely understandable, Jack would be lying if he said that the place didn’t give him the creeps. “There’s uh… there’s nothin’ here.”

“There is, trust me,” Jack replies, eyes roaming around the town. He walks towards the grain mill, pushing open the door and wincing at the agonized groan it gives. Save for some bats that hiss at the ice galaxite’s sudden intrusion and little spiders that scuttle away from the door, there’s really nothing in it. No hidden entry, no doorways, nothing. 

Jack frowns as he pushes the door to the mill shut, mouthing an apology to the grumpy bats that he had so rudely woken up. This is obviously going to be a lot harder than he thought… 

“There’s gotta be some sort of hatch or trapdoor around here,” he mumbles to himself, flitting in and out of rotting houses and sheep pens, turning up floorboards and sticking his head into any little crevice it can fit in. Bunny stands in the center of the village, sending Jack confused looks whenever he dashes out of one house just to check the next. 

After a few minutes of fruitless searching, Jack flops down on the well, a scowl on his face and dust in his hair. He was so sure that there was something here! He’d use his tracking magic again, but his head already hurt enough. He’d probably throw up if he had to use it again, and that wouldn’t be pleasant for anyone. 

“Maybe… maybe there’s nobody left,” he finally mumbles after a few moments. “Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was just seeing things.” The energy that had been fueling his search for the survivors was starting to slowly drain away, leaving behind a gaping hole in his chest that was slowly filling with dread and misery. The colonies were the  _ only _ people Jack could think of to fight off the Zogaia. Humans wouldn’t stand a chance against them. They’d fight the invaders tooth and nail, and wouldn’t back down until the very end, but the Zogaia are relentless and had a massive population to back them up. Not to mention technology far more advanced than humans could even  _ dream _ of. Their only hope was to contact Ostraea, but if their colonies here have already fallen, then there’ll be no way to. 

“Hey, buck up ya sad sack,” Bunny says, resting a paw on Jack’s shoulders. “We can’t give up hope yet, we’ve gotta keep goin’.” Bunny pats Jack on the shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile. “I hardly have a damn clue about what’s goin’ on, but I know whatever it is, it’s really bad. Bad enough to scare you, and Pitch could barely do that. But if we give up hope, then there’ll be no chance at all. And well, if we’re gonna go down, we can at least go down fightin’, yeah?” Jack’s eyes flick up to meet Bunny’s, a reassuring warmth filling the vivid green irises. The gaping hole in his chest slowly closes over, filling with a renewed hope and a warmth he hasn’t felt since his death. 

“Thanks, Bunny,” He chuckles, standing back up and nudging the rabbits side with his shoulder playfully. “Can always count on you.”

Bunny opens his mouth to respond, but it snaps shut almost immediately. His ears perk up and his pupils narrow into slits, claws flexing. Jack’s skin begins to prickle as he senses magic wafting through the air, magic that is both foreign and familiar. 

“Hang on a second,” Jack murmurs, bringing a hand up and hovering it over Bunny’s shoulders. “Is that–”

“ _ PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR _ !” An unfamiliar voice calls. Bunny jolts, grabbing for his boomerangs only to have them knocked out of his hands by a blast of ice. 

“What the fuck?” He yelps, taking a few steps backwards and rubbing his hands. Jack swivels around and faces two very angry, very shocked looking Galaxites. 

“Oh boy.” Jack raises his hands submissively. 

The first thing Jack notices is that they’re not speaking English. Whatever they’re speaking, it’s a derivative of Ostraean Empirical Standard, something he’d been forced to learn as a part of his military training. It’s clearly some form of dialect though, because Jack can’t recognize some of the words they’re speaking. 

The second thing he notices is that they’re both armed with handguns, with extendable spears attached to their belts. 

“ _ Uh, hello _ ,” he says, using the old language for what could possibly be the first time in centuries. The pair jolt and raise their weapons at him, causing him to take a few steps backwards. 

“ _ Who the hell are you _ ?” The taller of the pair growls. She narrows her eyes at him, lips quirked into a nasty looking snarl. 

‘Ice Galaxite,’ he thinks to himself, noting her icy blue sclera and the little pointy icicles that grow out from around her feet. 

“ _ Um. So yeah, I’m Jack Frost _ ,” he gestures to himself, before waving over at Bunny, who is glaring daggers at the woman. “ _ And that’s the Easter Bunny… Bunny. Don’t know if you’ve heard of us or not. Do you guys even celebrate Easter _ ?”

“ _ The fucks Easter _ ?” The shorter one asks. His hands are curled into a fist, and his body is lowered to the ground in a fighting stance. Little diamond like crystals spread over his fists, causing his dark skin to glitter in the midday sun. If the circumstances were different, Jack would probably be laughing his ass off and saying he looked like one of those vampires from that one movie Jamie made him watch a few years back. 

“ _ Ok so that answers that question _ ,” he mumbles to himself. “ _ But we’re not here to hurt you, so please for the love of god, don’t–don’t shoot us. We’re on your side _ .” It wouldn't kill them, being shot, but it’d fucking suck. 

The pair hesitate, staring at him apprehensively, before slowly lowering their guns and sheathing them. 

“ _ You’re here to help? What exactly are you _ ?” The tall woman frowns. Jack rubs his fingers together, a nervous habit he acquired from years of rubbing his fingers against the grain of his staff (which he  _ still _ needs to get back from North. He still needs to do a lot of things back at the pole, actually. Like give a proper explanation, which he still hasn’t really done. He’ll do it later).

“ _ Galaxite, well a spirit one anyways _ ,” Jack answers. “ _ I’m… I was from Altorai. Came here not long after the attacks _ .” The man's eyes widen in shock, his mouth hanging open, and he murmured something under his breath that Jack didn’t fully hear (but judging by what he did hear, it was probably some type of surprised curse). The other one just looks confused.

‘She must not have heard of Altorai then,’ Jack thinks.

The shorter of the pair walks up to Jack, eyeing him skeptically, before extending his hand out towards him. The little crystals slide off his hand and drop down into the overgrown grass, slowly dissolving into the soil. Jack extends out his own hand, hesitantly grabbing the others. 

“ _ My names Jaeris Wilsun _ ,” He says, shaking Jack’s hand and gesturing behind him. “ _ And that’s— _ ”

“ _ Erin Kaedottr _ ,” Erin interrupts Jaeris before he can finish, holding out her hand for Jack to shake. “ _ Sorry for uh. Threatening to kill you _ .” Bunny stares at the pair apprehensively, before his eyes flicker back to Jack. 

“I have no fuckin’ clue what they’re sayin’,” he says bluntly. “‘Erin Kaedóttir?’ Is that Icelandic?” 

“Kaedottr, and no. It’s close, but it’s different spelling.” Not to mention Dottr is pronounced more like Doctor anyway. Jack turns his attention back to the pair. “ _ Kaedottr, you said? Is that from Riapli? I haven’t heard a surname like that in a while _ .”

“ _ Yes. Poppy was from Riapli, pappa said _ ,” She responds with a nostalgic smile. Jack frowns a little at the strange grammar. The translation is a bit odd, the dialect they use is a little different from what he’s used to. He’ll have to ask them to teach him it, if he’s going to properly work with them. For now, he’s just happy to be having a conversation with his own kind. 

“ _ I heard about the attacks _ ,” Jack mutters softly. Jaeris hangs his head mournfully, clasping his hands together in front of his chest as if praying. 

“ _ We lost a lot of people when they attacked us, Frost _ .” Erin glances off into the distance, staring at nothing. “ _ Hardly anyone made it out alive, and the majority who did are either too young to help or incredibly injured. It is hard times right now _ .” She reaches out for him hesitantly, staring down into his eyes and silently asking for permission. Jack nods at her, and she brings her hand down to rest on his shoulders. “ _ Thank you for coming for us _ .” She nods towards Bunny, who stares back at her with an uncomfortable look in his eyes. “ _ Thank you both _ .”

“I still don’t understand what she’s saying,” Bunny grumbles. Jack pulls away from Erin with a slight chuckle, turning around to face the disgruntled Easter Bunny. 

“Erin says they lost a lot of people, and a lot of the survivors are very injured, they’re probably going to need all the help they can get,” Jack says. He stares into Bunny’s eyes, a dry smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. “So Bunny, wanna see the colonies?”

—————

Aster didn’t know what to expect, but what he was seeing sure as hell wasn't it. 

Jaeris and Erin had carefully led the pair of spirits into one of the animal pens. Erin kept watch as Jaeris kicked open a latch, lifting up a trap door and exposing a dimly lit stairwell that—presumably— led down into the bunkers. 

The trip down wasn't too long, but there were quite a lot of twists and turns, doorways that didn’t open and hallways that led to nowhere. Whoever built the place clearly meant for it to be kept a secret. 

Eventually they did make it to the bunker entrance, which was a large doorway blocked by two very heavy looking doors with a strange looking keypad that had symbols on it Aster couldn’t recognize at  _ all _ . Jaeris tapped at the keypad, eyeing the spirits carefully and making sure to cover his hand as he did it, and with a  _ click _ and a  _ hiss _ the doors were pushed open, allowing the group to walk in to the bunker. 

Which led Aster to where he was now, staring out across the remains of the Colonies. 

The bunker was about thrice the size of an average highschool gymnasium, with high walls made of granite and tarps carefully laid out on the floor. Most of the conscious people there were children, who were were being comforted by teenagers and adults who held them tightly as they wept. The woman—Erin, Jack said her name was—led them through the maze of tarps and bodies and towards a sectioned off part of the bunker, separated from the rest by a large grey curtain that spanned from one wall to another. 

“Apparently this is the medical wing,” Jack mumbles, breaking the tense silence between the two spirits. Erin and Jack exchange some more words in that odd language of theirs. At first, the language sounded like some form of Scottish Gaelic, but the longer Aster listened to the pair talk, the stranger it seemed. The words were definitely far different to Gaelic, and none of the supposed ‘translations’ made any sense. Aster was stuck using Jack as his translator for the time being. 

The other one—Jaeris—had, according to Jack, been pulled away from the group to assemble what little conscious adults they have left to formulate a plan of action. He wasn’t in the bunker, so Aster assumes he must’ve either gone topside or into an adjacent room that he hadn’t noticed when he first came in. 

Aster snaps out of his train of thought to the sound of a curtain being tugged back, Erin gesturing for the spirits to walk in to the medical bay. 

“Oh strewth,” Aster breathes out in shock. There weren’t any proper medical beds, just heaps of mattresses lying on the floor, covered in white and blue sheets. Half the people were unconscious, and the other half looked like they were barely awake. There were only a few doctors in there, definitely not enough given the hundred odd patients moaning in pain, with wounds that were slowly stitching themselves shut, the sight of which making Aster shudder. Despite being surrounded by spirits with regeneration powers for centuries, the sight of muscles knitting themselves back together, of skin regrowing at an inhuman pace, still made him feel sick to the stomach. Most wounds were left open, with no stitching or bandages. Aster could tell they had been carefully cleaned though, judging by the smell of sanitizer and peroxide that stung his overly sensitive nose. 

Jack glances over at Aster, a sympathetic look on his face. 

“It’s pretty gruesome, I know,” he says. “Galaxites heal too quickly to use stitches, I learned that the hard way when I tried to stitch a wound shut only to have the skin regrow over it.” Aster shivers at the mental image, it’s certainly not something he wants to envision, especially after watching Jack’s cheek completely heal itself in no more than an hour. 

“So, what are we supposed to do now?” He blurts out after a moment of tense silence. 

“That’s the million dollar question I suppose,” Jack replies with a lazy shrug of the shoulders. “You should… go back. To the pole. Tell the others what’s going on, bring them here… you know.” 

Aster wanted to scream that  _ he didn’t know what was going on _ , because Jack  _ wouldn’t fucking tell him _ . But when he opened his mouth to speak, all that came out was, “And what about you?” 

The spirit shrugs in response, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. His eyes are drooping, and he looks as if he’s going to drop dead. Aster hadn’t seen him like this since the fight with Pitch seven years ago, and to be honest, it was quite unnerving. 

“I’ve gotta stay here, I’m playing ambassador.” Jack points his thumb to himself, grinning lazily. “Seriously, go. Go bring the others here cottontail, ‘kay?” Aster rolls his eyes at the nickname, mostly happy that some of the sadness in his tone has been replaced with something lighter.

“Fine, ya bossy little shit.” Aster flicks Jack on the forehead, thumping his foot against the concrete twice. The ground collapses in on itself, and without a hint of hesitation, Aster jumps down into the darkness as the tunnel closes above him. 

From the concrete springs a single flower with drooping lilac petals. 

Monkshood. 

———

Gray paws clutch at his chest as he leans against the soft moss of the tunnel wall. The warm ambient light that usually calmed him now felt cold, as if all warmth had been sucked out of it. Asters shaking, he knows that, but he doesn’t know if he can stop just yet. 

Everything that’s happening reminds him too much of what happened to his home planet, the fear in the eyes of the ones who were still alive shook him to the core. The uncertainty he felt, the feeling of  _ not knowing _ what was going on... 

It was… suffocating. 

Aster shakes his head, putting the metaphorical lid on the boiling Pot of Problems. This is about _Jack_. And _god_ _forbid_ he’d let his own issues get in the way of helping the spirit he’d finally come to consider his friend. 

With that in mind, Aster settles down onto all fours and bounds towards the pole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow jack, your communication skills are impeccable!


	8. Uh Oh Sisters

I am Very sorry to anyone interested in this story because I am NOT gonna lie my motivation just Flew out the window. I was really obsessed with ROTG for like. A month, but now I’ve moved on to ninjago because my brain doesn’t like sitting with one interest for too long. 

Will I continue this?? Idk. It’s hard to say. I was really invested in continuing this story but now I just feel weird about it. The writings kinda piss poor and the pacing is weird and the characterization feels weird and I just? Cannot continue it. 

I feel like I shouldn’t have added any shipping stuff in because I am Not sure if I added it because I actually wanted to write ships or if I did it because I didn’t want it to have no relationships in the tags. A bad move on my behalf, yeah. 

I’m still writing self indulgent stories for myself, but my current interests are miraculous ladybug, The Glass Scientists and LEGO Ninjago. Again, I could potentially come back to this, but that’s a HEAVY maybe. 

In the meantime, I’ve made a ninjago oc and will absolutely be doing her x everyone because I’m stupid and love the ninjas (Lloyd will be excused because he’s technically still a child in my eyes and wu will also not be shipped because he’s Old Man). Also I really want to smooch Nya. If I can get around to it with this self isolation shit and my own piss poor mental health then I’ll probably write some stories based around her. 

But again, I’m sorry to anyone who wanted more of this, I did too. Alas, my brain is dumb and jumps from interests faster than a kid on a Minecraft parkour map and I’ve found myself losing interest in writing this. Hope y’all have a wonderful day, drink some water, and remember to stay safe, luv y’all! 

**Author's Note:**

> OK SO. Galaxites are a fictional species of mine from a story im making called Deadly Nightshade. This is very self indulgent but do i LOOk like i care?


End file.
